A Conversation with Ryland Blackinton of Cobra Starship – HuffPost 11.15.11

Mike Ragogna: How are you doing, Ryland?

Ryland Blackington: I’m great, these are solar radio waves I’m talking through.

MR: Yes, yes they are. Okay, you’re no strangers to hits, and you’re just coming off of “You Make Me Feel” from the new album. How is having a hit this time out differ the other times?

RB: I don’t know, I think there’s some kind of momentum that happens when you chain a few of them together. I also think that it’s kind of expected for them not to come after a while. It’s really tough to follow up and beat a hit that you had before, which is partially why we took so much time releasing this one. I think once we came out with the first one, people thought, “I guess we know ‘Snakes On A Plane,'” then with “Good Girl Go Bad,” they said, “We know Leighton Meester and we kind of know Cobra Starship,” but now by the time we did the third one, people are starting to know who we are.

MR: Also, they know who you are in South America where you were on tour with Justin Beiber, right?

RB: Yeah, that was crazy. We did about 21 days down there with Justin. We opened for him and that’s one of the biggest things we’ve ever done, and probably one of the biggest things we’ll ever do. It’s like flying first class your whole life, and now we have to go back to coach.

MR: You guys opened for him? That little kid? (laughs)

RB: Yeah, can you believe that? That little 17-year-old brat, we had to open for him, he wouldn’t open for us. No seniority, no respecting of the elders. (laughs)

MR: Can you catch us up on how you got together? You’re New Yorkers, right?

RB: We’re New Yorkers, yes. Alex and I, the bass player, are friends from high school. We met Gabe, our lead singer, just by going out at night in New York City really. He had the “Snakes On A Plane…” thing happening, and he needed a real band to come with him on tour and to make real albums. He invited us to do it and we accepted.

MR: Is he the biggest wise guy of the band?

RB: He’s the biggest wiseguy of the band, but not the tallest, I’m about two and a half inches taller than him. I’m the tallest wiseguy, he’s the biggest wiseguy.

MR: What other Cobra Starship tracks are you focusing on from the album?

RB: Well, our next single is “Middle Finger” featuring Mac Miller, who you may or may not have heard it yet.

MR: No, not Mac Miller! Um, can you fill us in?

RB: I don’t even know much about him myself. At first, I thought he came from Wiz Khalifa’s crew, but I don’t think he does. He comes from the same scene, Pittsburgh area. He’s gaining momentum right now, he has one of the highest sales on an indie label.

MR: So, who is this middle finger to?

RB: Oh man, I don’t know…up into the sky, up into anything. Not to any individual person because that would be offensive, just up into the clouds.

MR: What is the creative process when Cobra Starship does that kind of thing?

RB: It’s different every time. One through line is that we have our own studio, which is a huge luxury. We have a studio in Manhattan; typically the format will be that Alex or myself will go create a track and make a song. Then Gabe will come in a little later once we’re done, and then he will work with it and try to write lyrics and a melody on it. So, that’s the main framework of it. Sometimes, we do collaborations with people where we get the opportunity to get to be in the room with another producer, and those situations are different based on that producer’s process.

MR: How did you go into this album production wise?

RB: I think in the past, we had always strove to make a New York sounding record, it wasn’t until this time around that we made the record in Manhattan–primarily at night–where I think we were able to tap into an album that sounds like going out music, or at least getting ready to go out music. That’s sort of a theme we try to have apparent in our music. We also think it’s cool to hear your song in a club that you’re out at. That’s another sort of mini-goal in all of that.

MR: What do you think is the biggest party song on this record?

RB: Probably “One Night,” that was the one we did with Ryan Tedder.

MR: You’re on Fueled By Raman, one of the truly great labels. What do you think of your brethren over there?

RB: It’s great. Just recently, we did a Fueled By Ramen 15 year anniversary show at Terminal 5 here in New York City, where we got to hang with everybody in the extended family. It’s cool, we’re really proud to be a part of that family. I’m also sitting in their office so I can’t really be honest with you right now. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Now, you have a lot of TV credits under your belt, but the one that stands out most is your impending Dancing With The Stars appearance. Are you all a twitter with nervous anticipation?

RB: Yeah, we’re not nervous about it, but there’s a definite excitement level. When you do these prime time American television shows, you’re going to be exposed to millions of people, and there’s an excitement that comes with that, knowing that you’ll be on people’s minds, even if just for a millisecond. We’re getting better at it–we know how to dress up a little nicer so we don’t look like such schleps. That’s the hard part, looking good, right?

MR: Absolutely, that’s all that really matters, really. And, of course, they’re going to make you dance.

RB: I don’t think so…that’s funny that you say that. I said that to mom and I said we were going to be on Dancing With The Stars, and she said, “Well you better start practicing.” I said, “No we’re not really dancing…are we?” I got a little nervous there because contrary to public opinion, I don’t dance that well.

MR: Yeah, good luck with that not dancing on the show thing. So, what about Cobra Starship and The Thanksgiving Day Parade?

RB: That, to me, is one of the coolest accolades I think we’ll ever achieve. Again talk about being on people’s minds…it’s been a tradition in my family, anyway, even if you’re not looking at it to have the Thanksgiving Day Parade on, but we’re going to make sure people are looking at the screen when we’re on.

MR: Are you guys going to be making kooky fashion statements?

RB: I don’t know how much craziness or zaniness there will be, I think it’s all about the float isn’t it? As of right now we don’t know what the float is going to look like, but I’m really excited. I’m hoping it’s like SpongeBob Bikini Bottom, like where Spongebob lives. I will settle for anything, I will settle for Candy Land or Dora The Explorer. I just hope we get a cool float.

MR: So. Dora and SpongeBob and Justin. You’re pretty popular among kids, how do you straddle having cred and the kids thing?

RB: I don’t know actually. Now I’m nervous about that, I never even thought about that huge responsibility. I think we have been a band that are about the kids; our fans are primarily younger, and we’ve been lucky enough to have that other fan base come in after the fact. I think it’s important to have the kids though, because that’s when I remember music being most influential for me. I think you get a lot of passion from the kids. In the beginning, the kids are the ones who listen to the whole record, but it’s cool to have both.

MR: Which of your older hits do you look back on and say, “Ooh, that was a lucky break”?

RB: I mean they’ve all been lucky breaks. From having Leighton Meester do “Good Girls Go Bad,” and then having the weird overlap of Gossip Girl and “Good Girls Go Bad,” that weird alignment of stars. We’ve been very lucky with stuff like that…or are we? Or are we just putting that out into the universe and it’s just coming back to us. Either way, we feel very fortunate to have those things work out.

MR: I’ve been trying to figure out how to throw in the “I Kissed A Boy” cover in here.

RB: Yeah, the “I Kissed A Boy” thing was cool. We were just on tour with Katy Perry when that song came out. We asked her if we could do a remix and she sent us all of the stems, but instead, we did a parody. That was another good timing thing.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

RB: Tough call. I think with pop music, it’s really tough. I think that there’s a way to work within the preexisting structure that pop music is in, but find a way to do that in a unique way, which is a huge challenge. But I think that’s what works. People don’t want the exact same thing that they’ve heard, but they don’t want something that’s so far outside of the format that they can’t understand it. It’s about walking that line. I was talking to a friend last night–Alanis Morissette was number one at one point. We all have to expect that nobody could have seen that coming, that this hippie woman with super long hair who used to date Dave Coulier, no one could call that. She came out of nowhere, and sometimes, that happens. Otherwise, I would say be an individual in a format that’s preexisting.

MR: If Gabe Saporta was on this phone call what question do you think he would have wanted me to ask him?

RB: God, there are so many ways I could go with this. I really don’t know. He would probably want you to ask boxers or briefs, so he could respond boxer briefs.

MR: Of course. And you will be on a more extensive tour in addition to television, right?

RB: I think so, nothing lined up yet but I think that’s the goal. Little things right now, we’ll play a tour properly next year.

MR: Now that you’ve conquered South America, is there another continent you’re after?

RB: Yeah, the only places we’ve never really been to–Eastern Europe, Italy, and Africa. We recently found out we’re going to Australia in February. We’ve done that before, but it will be cool to re-conquer that.

MR: And Japan? You must be pretty popular there.

RB: We are literally and physically huge in Japan. We’ve been there a few times and we have a pretty good fan base there. Japan is easily my favorite place to go in the world.

MR: What’s the next album going to be about?

RB: Oh my Lord, I can’t even think about that just yet. Hopefully, that will become known to us when it comes time. Right now, we’re still pretty knee deep in this one. Now that we have our studio, hopefully it will come easier than the last.

MR: Are you guys always wanting to record and make new music now that you have that NYC studio?

RB: Yeah, it’s tough, because traditionally, when you want to use a studio, you have to call a label or the management or get it rented. Then you have to make sure that they have time for you, and then if so, there’s a hard out at a certain hour and you have to leave. When you have a studio open at your whim for 24 hours, sometimes you go there at like 2 when you’re drunk because you have an idea. You end up there more. There’s probably more unfinished crappy songs on our computer now than there were before. It’s a good way to grind.

MR: What do you see for Cobra Starship in about 5 years?

RB: Reunion show, and a fifth album and reunion show at the same time.

MR: You heard it here first, folks. Thanks so much Ryland for spending time with us.

RB: Thank you, Happy Holidays. Tune into the parade and see if my wave is good.

MR: Will do.

Transcribed By Theo Shier